Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Laparoscopy: Pakistan takes first step

For the first time in the medical history of Pakistan, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy — technically the most challenging laparoscopic procedure in urology — was performed on a 50-year-old patient suffering from prostate cancer. The surgery was performed at Shifa International by leading laparoscopic urological surgeon Dr. Matin Sheriff, who is currently heading the department of urology at the Meduay Maritime Hospital, Kent, UK.
He was assisted by a well-qualified team led by Professor Saeed Akhter, who heads the department of surgery at Shifa. The complicated procedure lasted 10 hours.Briefing the media at a thinly-attended press briefing here on Tuesday, Dr. Matin said the future of surgery lies in laparoscopic and robotic surgery. As opposed to conventional open surgery, laparoscopic or keyhole surgery has numerous advantages for the patient, the health facility, as well as the country. These include less post-operative pain, reduced risk of infection, zero blood loss, better cosmetic results, reduced need for analgesia or pain killers, reduced hospital stay and faster return to functionality, which eventually translates into huge economic savings.Referring to the cost factor, Dr. Matin informed that it is not so much the fee of the surgeon, as the cost of the very sophisticated disposable equipment used in laparoscopic radical prostatectomy which makes it an expensive surgery. While the actual cost of the surgery in Pakistan is yet to be accurately ascertained, Dr. Saeed estimated the cost as ranging between Rs150,000 and 200,000.


“However, if India can embrace laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and manufacture its own equipment too, there is no reason why Pakistan cannot do it,” Dr. Matin asserted, hoping that the country’s policymakers would pay heed to the advancements so rapidly being adopted by our own next-door neighbour, leave alone the west. Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is a highly complex, demanding and difficult surgery. It is performed by making multiple tiny less than one centimeter incisions, unlike traditional open surgery which requires one large single incision. The aim of this procedure is to cure localized prostate cancer.
As tensions between India and Pakistan rise in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks and Islamabad finds itself burdened underinternational pressure, it's only in Beijing that it has found solace. Signing a defence agreement with China on Monday, the two countries publicly reaffirmed their military and security ties, with promises of more Chinese military help coming Pakistan's way. The talks were led by Chen Bingde, chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), and Tariq Majid, chairman joint chiefs of staff committee of Pakistan.

They also resolved to co-operate with each other to fight terrorism. Majid said Pakistan cherished the traditional friendship and co-operation with China and was ready to make concerted efforts with the PLA to strengthen military ties.

The talks between China and Pakistan, despite the warm vibes between them, were held at the same time when the US deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, was telling his Chinese counterpart, Dai Bingguo, that Beijing needed to exert its influence on Islamabad regarding the current tensions in South Asia and to push Pakistan to take more steps against terrorist groups on its soil.

While there were few details about the talks between China and Pakistan, it's clear Islamabad is seeking a lot of military help from Beijing including equipment and intelligence. It's also clear that the current crisis with India was the focus of discussions between the two sides.

Beijing regards Islamabad in much the same way as Washington regards Tel Aviv in its national security calculus.


In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, China lifted its opposition to proscribing Jamaat-ud-Dawa in the UN Security Council. On previous occasions, including about six months ago, China fudged on banning this group, citing lack of evidence. The Mumbai attacks, however, changed that. But that does not mean China will not extend covert assistance to Pakistan despite the fact that when President Zardari went to Beijing to ask for financial assistance, he returned empty-handed. Not so the defence establishment of Pakistan, because, sources say, China continues to assist Pakistan in the military sector. In return, Pakistan tamps down on the Uighur separatists in Xinjiang province, though it's not stopped many Uighurs from training in Pakistani terror camps. Earlier this year, China completed four militarily important naval frigates as part of an $800 million deal to Pakistan.
Over the past few years, Pakistan has agreed to jointly produce with China up to 250 JF-17 fighter planes in a deal estimated by defence officials to be worth at least $5 billion.
In addition, Pakistan is reportedly negotiating the purchase of 35-40 of the J-10 fighter planes which is one of the most advanced fighter planes produced by China.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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US stopped India from attacking Pakistan: US TV claims
A US TV claimed that India was ready to attack Pakistan soon after Mumbai attacks but the United States stopped it while according to Pakistan Air Force (PAF), it was fully ready to face any situation.
According to a report of US TV, three officers of Pentagon have confirmed that India put on high alert its Air force aimed to launch attack against positions of suspected terrorists in Pakistan but US stopped it and India also avoided launching any attack against Pakistan.


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India's air force geared up for possible missions against suspected terrorist camps in Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of November's Mumbai attacks, U.S. military officials told CNN Monday.

Pakistan said it would defend itself if attacked.


"We don't want to go to war," Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani announced during a speech at the National Assembly on Monday. "But if the war is thrust on us, we will stand united like a respectful nation."

Air Commodore Homayoon Ziqar, a spokesman for the Pakistani air force, told CNN that Pakistan is not on heightened alert at the moment. "Everything is normal," he said.

Another source in Pakistan's military also said the air force is not on heightened alert, but added, "We are always ready, on weekends, on holidays, no matter what the circumstances."

While the officials characterized the Indian actions as preliminary preparations to position the air force if strikes were ordered, the comments indicate that the two nuclear powers were perhaps closer to conflict than previously acknowledged.

Three Pentagon officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, have individually confirmed to CNN that the United States has information indicating that India began to prepare air force personnel for a possible mission.

The officials offered few details, but one said India's air force "went on alert."

An Indian air force official had no comment.





* Pakistan Air Force spokesman says Indian warplanes flew over Kashmir, Lahore
* India says incursions were ‘inadvertent’
* PM says violations will not be taken as attack

Indian aircraft violated Pakistani airspace in Kashmir and Lahore sectors on Saturday 13th December but were chased back over the border, the Pakistani government and a Pakistan Air Force spokesman said.

Air Commodore Himayun Viqar said the Indian aircraft crossed into Azad Kashmir and the eastern city of Lahore.

The state-run APP news agency said two aircraft were involved, but did not give the exact time.‘Inadvertent’: Information Minister Sherry Rehman said there was no need for alarm and that the Indian Air Force had told Pakistan the incursion was ‘inadvertent’. “We have confirmed it. We have spoken to the Indian Air Force and they have said it was inadvertent,” she said. “Our air force is on alert and is ready to face any eventuality, but we do not expect this to escalate. There is no need for alarm.”

In New Delhi, an Indian Defence Ministry spokesman said he had no information on the reported incursion.The Azad Kashmir prime minister confirmed the reports while talking to a private TV channel.The violations occurred at a time of heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours following a series of terrorist attacks on Mumbai two weeks ago that the Indian government has blamed on elements based in Pakistan.Another private TV channel in Pakistan said the Indian jets were ‘fully armed with weapons and ammunition’ and flew up to four kilometres inside Pakistani territory.It quoted unidentified officials as saying that the violations occurred ‘during the day’ but did not elaborate.
Bush on farewell visit to Iraq dodges flying shoes


Bush farewell visit to Iraq marred by ‘shoe attack’




Iraqi reporter throws shoes at President Bush

What happened to Bush in Iraq was loud cry against occupiers - Lebanese Hezbollah





A journalist hurled two shoes at President George W. Bush on his farewell visit to Iraq on Sunday, highlighting the hostility toward the outgoing US leader who acknowledged the war was still not won.

An Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush is reportedly being held for questioning by the Iraqi prime minister's guards.

An official says the reporter (Muntadar al-Zeidi) is being interrogated over whether anybody paid him to hurl his shoes at Bush during a press conference Sunday in Baghdad. The reporter is also being tested for alcohol and drugs. The shoes are being held as evidence. The reporter's colleagues say he was kidnapped last year by Shiite militias and released after his TV station, Al-Baghdadia, intervened.

An Iraqi reporter called President George W. Bush a "dog" and threw his shoes at him on Sunday, sullying a farewell visit to Baghdad meant to mark greater security in Iraq after years of bloodshed.

Just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama, Bush sought to underline improved security by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the city's heavily fortified international Green Zone.

He declared the war "not over" despite recent gains.

In a sign of lingering anger over the war that will define the Republican president's foreign policy legacy, an Iraqi journalist shouted in Arabic "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," and hurled his shoes at Bush during a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.


Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.


"It's like going to a political rally and have people yell at you. It's a way for people to draw attention," Bush said. "I don't know what the guy's cause was. I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."


The journalist was leapt on by Iraqi security officials and U.S. secret service agents and dragged from the room screaming and struggling.

Meanwhile, Arabs across the Middle East are hailing the shoe incident as a proper send-off to the unpopular U.S. president. Thousands took to the streets today in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, where they burned American flags and called for the release of the reporter. The Iraqi government has condemned the act.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

‘Pakistan first’ my life’s agenda, says Musharraf

Former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf has said that “Pakistan first” is the agenda and manifesto of his life. In an interview with a private TV channel, Musharraf said everyone must play a role for the progress of Pakistan and that “we have to end terrorism and extremism from its roots. As it is the responsibility of entire world community, region and each of us to tackle”. “As a nation, we have to think about the progress of Pakistanis and we have to take steps for the social welfare of the masses, progress and development of Pakistan.


To maintain law and order, ensuring security for the property and lives of masses must be the top priority of the government,” he said. Musharraf further said he did not own a residence in the United Kingdom or United States and was currently staying with friends. He said he would soon visit Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.He said security of the state, progress and provision of education and health facilities were mandatory for the development of Pakistan.


While talking about the Mumbai attacks he said Pakistan was a victim of terrorism itself. “Before accusing Pakistan, India must understand the role of Pakistan in the war against terrorism and must work with it to eliminate the curse of terrorism,” he maintained. online

Monday, December 8, 2008

Act quickly Rice tells Pakistan

Pakistan must act quickly to help India prevent follow-on attacks amid evidence that Pakistani soil was used by "non-state actors," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.
Speaking on US television, Rice said she stressed during her visit to Pakistan last week how important it was for Islamabad to co-operate fully.


"The important thing is that Pakistan act and that these people are brought to justice and that any information that they may have is put to use in making sure follow-on attacks don't happen," Rice said.

Rice said she believed the militants who staged the assault were "non-state actors", but Pakistan still should co-operate in the investigation.

She said US-Pakistan relations were at stake as well as Islamabad's ties with India.
Rice did not describe the evidence but said the US had passed information about the attacks to both India and Pakistan.


When livestock sellers start putting their sheep on show on the streets from Karachi to Cairo, people know that the Eid al-Adha festival is upon them once again.


Eid al-Adha, or the Greater Feast, is a four-day event associated with the sacrifice rituals and the hajj pilgrimage. It also means new clothes, new movies in the theatres, and more family meetings.


But it is the lambs that remain the centre of attention - at least until their slaughter early on the first day of the feast, after the Eid prayers.


The sacrifice aims at reminding Muslims of the Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail to Allah as an act of obedience and submission.


When Ibrahim dreamt he was sacrificing his son, he decided to do as ordered, in the knowledge that God inspires the dreams of prophets.


So when both father and son showed their obedience to God, He saved Ismail and replaced him with a ram. Ever since, those Muslims who can afford to do so are asked to slaughter an animal such as a sheep, camel or goat.


Buying the lamb is a good opportunity for children to know their religion. We regret our children cannot enjoy being around the sheep like we used to, but our only relief is that we get God's blessing for our sacrifice and the kids get to see the cow before it is slaughtered in the morning.


A third of the meat should go to one's immediate family, a third to the poor and the last third to members of the larger family.


Eid al-Adha, which falls annually on the 10th of Zul Hijja, the last month of the lunar Islamic calendar, starts this year on December 9th in Pakistan.

Saturday, December 6, 2008


Nuclear-armed Pakistan went into a state of ‘high alert’ last weekend and was eyeing India for possible signs of military aggression, after a threatening phone call made to President Asif Ali Zardari by someone from Delhi who posed himself as the Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.


Whether it was mere mischief or a sinister move by someone in the Indian external affairs ministry, or the call came from within Pakistan, remains unclear, and is still a matter of investigation. But several political, diplomatic and security sources have confirmed to Dawn that for nearly 24 hours over the weekend the incident continued to send jitters across the world. To some world leaders the probability of an accidental war appeared very high.


It all started late on Friday, November 28. Because of the heightened tension over the Mumbai carnage, some senior members of the presidential staff decided to bypass the standard procedures meant for such occasions, including verification of the caller and involvement of the diplomatic missions, and transferred the late-evening call to Mr Zardari.


The caller introduced himself as Pranab Mukherjee and, while ignoring the conciliatory language of the president, directly threatened to take military action if Islamabad failed to immediately act against the supposed perpetrators of the Mumbai killings.As the telephone call ended many in the Presidency were convinced that the Indians had started beating the war drums. Within no time intense diplomatic and security activity started in Islamabad. Signals were sent to everyone who mattered about how the rapidly deteriorating situation may spiral out of control. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was advised to immediately return to the capital from Lahore, and a special plane (PAF chief’s) was sent to Delhi to bring back the visiting Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi early in the morning on Nov 29 even when he was already booked to return by a scheduled PIA flight the same evening.


It was against this backdrop that some top Pakistani security officials briefed a few media persons on Saturday afternoon about a “threatening phone call” by the Indian external affairs minister to “someone” at the top in Islamabad. They also talked of Delhi’s decision to put its air force in a state of “high alert”, and described the following 24 to 48 hours as extremely critical. One of the top security officials even announced the possibility of shifting tens of thousands of troops from its western border with Afghanistan to its eastern frontier with India.Sources said that during this period the Pakistan air force was at the highest alert.


Among the citizens of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, who may have noticed fighter jets screaming overhead on Saturday morning, none would have known that the warplanes were mounting patrols with live ammunition. One senior official refused to call it a panic decision. “War may not have been imminent, but it was not possible to take any chances,” he told Dawn.Intense diplomatic efforts that started late on Friday went on throughout the following day. During this period phone calls were made from Islamabad to some of the top officials and diplomats in Washington, including Condoleezza Rice, and the US Secretary of State called Mr Mukherjee and others in India in a night-long effort to understand what might have gone wrong, and to persuade the two sides to bring down the temperature.During this time, it was also revealed, an attempt was also made by the mysterious caller, claiming to be the Indian external affairs minister, to speak to the US Secretary of State, but due to specific checks laid down by the Americans, the call couldn’t get through to Dr Rice.


These sources said that when Condoleezza Rice contacted Mr Mukherjee in the middle of the night to inquire about the reasons for hurling such threats at Pakistan he reportedly denied having any such conversation with President Zardari. The Indian minister reportedly told Dr Rice that the only telephonic conversation he had was with his Pakistani counterpart on Friday when Mr Qureshi was still in Delhi. And, according to him, the tone of that discussion was quite cordial --- a fact later confirmed by the Pakistani foreign minister at a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday.As the international effort to defuse the tension intensified, matters started to clear up and by late Saturday evening calm began to prevail. But sources admit that those 24 hours made many people in Islamabad and Delhi and, perhaps in Washington, quite anxious. Perhaps for this reason, the Americans decided against taking any further chances, and Condoleezza Rice was asked to travel to the region to personally ensure the return from the brink.Since then investigators have tried to track down the number from where the call was made. Some of the senior diplomats and intelligence officials are convinced the source of the mischief was someone in the Indian external affairs ministry.


They base their case on the Caller ID, which established a Delhi number. On the other hand, the Indians have told the Americans that no call was made from any of the numbers of the external affairs ministry, and have hinted at the possibility of manipulation in the caller ID.But, as admitted by a top official in Islamabad, the more serious issue was the by-passing of the standard operating procedure to put such a call through to the President almost directly without even verifying the identity of the caller. In such a situation, the procedure is to take down the number and the message, consult the foreign ministry, involve the high commission, and then to call back on the given number.


The sources said none of this was done.As a result, the hoax call to the presidency triggered a major diplomatic crisis. Since then, the authorities have reworked the procedures by putting enough checks and filters for such high-level contacts in order to avoid embarrassment in the future.

Monday, December 1, 2008

As dust settles,
India's tensions deepen


India faces a deepening crisis both on its borders and in the heart of its own government in the wake of the audacious and brutal attacks in Mumbai that left at least 174 dead.

The country's top security official, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, resigned yesterday, saying he took "moral responsibility" for the massive intelligence failure that let the attacks occur; the Indian Express newspaper reported that the government had been recently and repeatedly warned of an imminent attack by sea. The young men who wrought the carnage are alleged to have sailed from Karachi, Pakistan, and landed in Mumbai, near the landmark Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel. Officials continued to carry bodies out of the hotel yesterday.

Even as internal criticism of the government builds, India's relations with long-time foe Pakistan are now the most acrimonious in years; the official press agency said yesterday that the government was considering ending a tepid peace process with Pakistan.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081201.INDIAMAIN01/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/


Signs Of An Attempted Coup In New Delhi

With a traumatized nation and a paralyzed government, a core group of secular ideologues and Hindu nationalists are executing a ‘soft coup’ in New Delhi to bring to power hawks who want to pursue America’s agenda of grooming India as a regional policeman, sort out Pakistan and confront China. India will self-destroy in the process. India’s military and intelligence has been penetrated. The man who uncovered the plot, Hemant Karkare, the antiterrorism chief of Mumbai police, was the first target of the mysterious terrorists. Patriotic Indians need to wake up and save their country.

Preliminary signs emerging from India’s power center, New Delhi, paint a picture of an unstable situation. Security is already compromised. But a bigger story is taking place in New Delhi, not Mumbai. There are disturbing signs that India, a nuclear-armed nation of a billion people, is witnessing a ‘soft coup’ attempt involving secular rightwing ideologues and Hindu nationalists.

Exploiting the fears of a traumatized nation and a government caught sleeping at the wheel, a core group of rightwing ideologues within India’s military, intelligence and political elite are trying to overthrow Manmohan Singh’s government. The plan apparently is to help the rise of rightwing elements in power and firmly push India in a confrontation with Pakistan and some other countries in the region.

The objective of this core group is to see India emerge as a superpower closely allied with the United States. They are excited about American plans for India as a regional policeman and have no problem in confronting China and Pakistan to achieve this status. They think time is slipping and they don’t want a hesitant political leadership in their way. Already the instability in the wake of Mumbai attacks is being exploited to start a war with Pakistan. The fact that this will also help U.S. military that is facing a tough time in Afghanistan appears to be more than just a coincidence.


In the very first hours of the Mumbai attack, the unknown terrorists were able to achieve a singular feat: the targeted murder of Hemant Karkare, the chief antiterrorism officer in the Indian police. The man was responsible for exposing the secret links between the Indian military and Hindu terror groups. His investigation resulted in uncovering the involvement of three Indian military intelligence officers in terrorist acts that were blamed on Muslim groups. At the time of his murder, Karkare was pursuing leads that were supposed to uncover the depth of the nexus between the Indian military and the sudden rise of well armed and well financed Hindu terrorism groups with their wide network of militant training camps across India.

Curiously, a CCTV camera has
caught on tape one of the unknown terrorists when he arrived with his group at their first target: a train station. The man, dressed in a jeans and a black T-shirt and carrying a machine gun, is wearing an orange-colored wrist band very common among religious Hindus. As a comparison, a recent picture of a Hindu militant activist taken during an event this year is shown to the right where the militant is wearing a similar band.

Observers are already seeing how the hawks within the Indian establishment and Hindu militant organizations have seized the initiative from a paralyzed government. The Indian army and intelligence are already penetrated. Now the real culprits are channeling the fears of a traumatized people toward Pakistan.

India is on the same path today that the Bush administration hawks took the American nation on after 9/11. But this time, patriotic Indians have the benefit of hindsight. They should stop the secular warmongers and Hindu militants from hijacking their country. The future of the entire region depends on it.

Sunday, November 30, 2008



Having cried wolf a few times too many, its not surprising that the rest of the world has, to be frank, had enough. Its about time India acknowledged the threats within its own borders not just from Muslims who feel increasingly alienated, but the rising threat of Hindu Terrorism, as proven in the case of the Malegaon attacks and Samjhauta Express bombings. Pointing the finger at Pakistan every time while ignoring / denying the threats it faces from within, coupled with a failure to address the deep-seated problems that fuel this hatred - will be counterproductive and will have disastrous consequences for India in the months/years to come.


Chrtistine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was careful to say that the identity of the terrorists could not yet be known. But she insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested that the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims - and not linked to Al Qaeda or the violent South Asian terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.


“There’s absolutely nothing Al Qaeda-like about it,” she said of the attack. “Did you see any suicide bombers? And there are no fingerprints of Lashkar. They don’t do hostage taking, and they don’t do grenades.” Fair believes the attacks could be “yet another manifestation of domestic terrorism” that has its genesis in a longstanding institutional discrimination against Muslims.


“There are a lot of very, very angry Muslims in India,” she said, “The economic disparities are startling, and India has been very slow to publicly embrace its rising Muslim problem. You cannot put lipstick on this pig. This is a major domestic political challenge for India.”
“The public political face of India says, ‘Our Muslims have not been radicalized.’ But the Indian intelligence apparatus knows that’s not true. India’s Muslim communities are being sucked into the global landscape of Islamist jihad.


“Indians will have a strong incentive to link this to Al Qaeda. ‘Al Qaeda’s in your toilet!’ But this is a domestic issue. This is not India’s 9/11.” Hoffman agreed that the assault was “not exactly Al Qaeda’s modus operandi, which is suicide attacks.”



‘India trains all sorts of peoples, from terrorists to militants to fanatics, to suit its national and international needs. But in order to cover up its nefarious activities it focuses on Islam, Muslims, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Hajj, etc.; and blames its neighbors. Indian intelligence agencies are frustrated over the strong lobbying for highlighting Kashmir human rights violations at international forums by some NGOs in Europe and U.S., with the support of Indian human rights and peace activists. A huge lot of resources are being wasted on propaganda purposes by Indian government directly throughout the world.’


Read Full Article by George Fernandes
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‘The Indian government has two choices. First, it can simply say that the perpetrators are a domestic group. In that case, it will be held accountable for a failure of enormous proportions in security and law enforcement. It will be charged with being unable to protect the public. On the other hand, it can link the attack to an outside power: Pakistan. In that case it can hold a nation-state responsible for the attack, and can use the crisis atmosphere to strengthen the government’s internal position by invoking nationalism. Politically this is a much preferable outcome for the Indian government, and so it is the most likely course of action. This is not to say that there are no outside powers involved — simply that, regardless of the ground truth, the Indian government will claim there were.’


Possible Geopolitical Consequences of the Mumbai Attacks Stratfor.
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‘India’s political leaders have long congratulated themselves on the absence of any home-grown al-Qaida threat.


But this week’s attack in Mumbai is the latest in a series of incidents that have forced the Indian government to acknowledge privately that there may be Islamist militant groups within its borders. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, explicitly accused Pakistan of involvement yesterday, but Indian defence analysts concede that it would have been near impossible to mount such a carefully coordinated assault on the city without some degree of local support.’


Read Full Article Amelia Gentleman Guardian UK
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‘In the interests of combating terrorism, it won’t be long before anti-terrorist squads ask Indians with Muslim names questions like: what are you doing out so late? Do you have a legitimate reason for walking near that hotel? How can you prove that you live in this city? If you’re not from here, what reason do you have for being in this city? It won’t be long before Indian Muslims are arrested simply for being Muslims, and asked to prove that they are not terrorists. As for the public, the great majority will applaud these actions. They’ll say it is unfortunate, but it is necessary. We know this because we have seen it all before.’



We’ve seen it all before. A Sri Lankan Perspective.
___________________________________________
Also, lets revisit the Samjhota Express blasts as well as Melagaon, both of which were blamed on Pakistan (ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba) just as they’re trying to pin this one on us.


‘Indian authorities and the media were quick to assert that the evidence overwhelmingly pointed towards Pakistan and ISI. With the immediate release of sketches of the suspects, it seemed that Indians had it all figured out. For Pakistan it was nothing more than a feeling of déjà vu; India is known to have a history of blaming Pakistan and ISI for the smallest of occurrences in India, hardly ever backing it up with any credible evidence.


And so when in 2006 Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, located at some 290 km to the northeast of state capital Mumbai, was rattled by a series of bombings, the blame was put on groups having links with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Maharashtra Police blamed the Student Islamic Movement of India, further linking them to Lashkar-e-Taiba and in turn the ISI.’


‘The unlikely twist surfaced recently in India with the arrests of 10 people, including a serving Lieutenant Colonel Prashad Srikant Purohit, a Hindu monk and nun for their alleged involvement in bomb explosions that killed six people in the Muslimdominated town of Malegaon this year. So far, ten people, including a selfproclaimed Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have been arrested for their involvement in the Sep 29 bombing.


Besides Purohit, of the accused also include Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shivnarayan Singh Kalsangram, Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu, Major Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay (retd), Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dattaram Dhavde and Ajay Rahirkar. The suspicion is now directed at the extremist Hindu movement Sangh Parivar, a network linked to a former Major, and now in custody, Ramesh Upadhyay who represents the terrorist organization, Abhinav Bharat.’


Read Full Article by Farzana Shah





Strange that none of the media (TV or Print) have picked this up at all. Or have they been deliberately ignoring it?
Have a look at the above picture of one of the terrorists.

Notice the orange thread / band on his right hand.
Tying a red thread or cord around the wrist is a Hindu practice and it is unlikely a Muslim, especially one politicized enough to carry out an attack such as this, would observe it. I think this provides more evidence that this was a false flag operation or at least an attack by a non-Muslim group. For more information about the significance of the red thread see
wikipedia and this blog post. [Thanks to Uruk]
Additionally, the terrorists inside the Nariman House Building were reported to have stocked up on supplies on Wednesday evening, buying not just food items but liquor, among other things, from a local store
[Source]. Again, it is highly unlikely that a Muslim, let alone a ‘Mujahid’, and especially one politicized enough to carry out such an attack, would consume liquor in normal life, let alone hours before his inevitable ‘martyrdom’.
Don’t let them ignore it. Circulate this to as many people as you can as we strongly believe it wouldn’t have been ignored if the terrorists were carrying a copy of the Qur’an, or a taveez.